The company, which makes respiratory monitoring systems and breath analyzers, posted $2.5 million revenue for the third quarter, roughly unchanged from last year.

For the nine months revenue stagnated at $6.7 million, against $6.6 million reported for the same period last year.

Its third-quarter gross profit margin edged up to 44.6% from 43.2% in the corresponding quarter of 2000.

Quarterly net loss deepened to $2.5 million, from $1.1 million in the same quarter of last year. The company explained that its upped spending on sales and R&D. For the nine months Oridion lost $8.8 million, compared with losing $5 million in the same period last year.

Regular activity generated negative Ebitda - earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization - of $2.4 million for the third quarter, worse than the EBITDA loss of $1.5 million in the parallel.

The company attributed the drop partly to a $1 million increase in quarterly operating costs to $3.8 million, mainly on intensified R&D and sales.

In the third quarter Oridion received the approval of the American Food and Drug Administration for its BreathID system, which detects Helicobacter pylori bacteria in exhalations. H. pylori is a major cause of peptic ulcer and a leading risk factor in developing gastric cancer.

The firm plans to launch the first application of the BreathID system once the FDA approves the urea tablet used by the device. Oridion has already begun selling BreathID systems to medical centers in Israel.